The Café del Oriente is a bit self-consciously grand, but the service is excellent and the majority of dishes very well cooked. The café menu downstairs differs from that of the upstairs restaurant, but if you’d like to see both menus the staff are flexible from serving from either one of them on both floors. In general there’s perhaps a tad too much emphasis on fruity additions to savoury dishes, but the Café’s Filet Mignon melts in the mouth and the Caesar Salad’s the best we’ve tasted on either side of the Atlantic.

Worth the longish taxi drive to the suburbs. Lilliam and her team serve huge portions of delicious Cuban and International food in an artfully-lit, jungly garden with water features, statues and huge trees towering overhead. It can be slightly unnerving sitting under the latter when flowers, seeds and assorted wildlife start splashing into your soup, but Lilliam's regulars just keep their cool and treat them as garnishes.

A stone's throw from Hotel Meliá Cohíba, do not be put of by the ugly exterior, inside lurks a cosy paladar with soft lighting and a collection of grandfather clocks. The family can seem a little weird and wonderful at times but manage to produce excellent food in a nice atmosphere. One of the best steaks in Havana.

Doctor Café is an expatriate favourite for good reason. Fresh fish as well as beef and lamb steaks cooked on a large BBQ are all excellent and the overall ambience is comfortable with a steady buzz and good quality service.

El Aljibe is one of the busiest restaurants in Havana, catering to the business and diplomatic crowd as well as to many large tour groups. The reason for the steady stream of clients is the best Creole food in Cuba; rice, beans and chicken really do not get any better than this .The atmosphere is provided by palm leaf/bamboo themed designs, attractive during the day.

El Templete's the jewel in Old Havana's culinary crown. Its Gallego chef's Arkaitz Etxarte sophisticatedly simple take on traditional ingredients gladdens the hearts of Havana foodies who flock to El Templete for his mango duck and chateaubriand accompanied by delightful side dishes and a short but well chosen wine list. Puddings are Lucullan, too: no-one should leave

A really fine paladar. The effect as you wait for your table is of a quaint English drawing room some-how mixed up with an art deco-gone-baroque style. There is no menu which means that one of the two owners will lovingly or brusquely depending on their mood, recite the options for you. It also means that the final bill will generally not be cheap. Having said that, food is prepared with care and the overall experience is generally excellent. Highly recommended, make sure that you book.

La Fontana has been one of the most upmarket paladares for some years and has a steady clientele. The outside terrace is currently under renovation which still leaves space at the ranchon out back and an inside air conditioned space. Grilled meat and seafood, including octopus, snails and fish, are the speciality.

This is a reliably good restaurant which has stood the test of time over the past 8 years. International food, attentive service and a constant flow of clients make this an excellent destination, make sure you reserve ahead if you want to avoid a long wait. Cuban speciality ropa vieja (meaning 'old clothes'; it's better than it

While this impressive hotel is not to everyone's taste if you want reliably consistent quality food with attentive service than you would do well to check out one of the hotel's 5 restaurants. The two places which we really like are La Piazza (1st floor) which has a standard Italian menu (great pizza) with lots of sports memorabilia on the walls and Habana Café (located next door), a wannabe hard rock-style which serves Havana’s best hamburgers and is a great place to get a bite pre cabaret.

La Casa is a premium paladar worth the track out to Nuevo Vedado. Faux waterfalls provide a pleasant background and the well oiled kitchen produces excellent grub. A dinner generally does not come out too cheap but the experience is generally worth it. It is hard not to spot the esteemed owner enthroned in his ever present seat keeping an eye on all that goes on.

La Guarida has become a Havana institution especially for people visiting Havana; everyone's been here from Calvin Klein to the Queen of Spain. The setting is marvellous: one climbs cracked and battered marble stairs past a once-grand ballroom full of drying washing to an intimate and enchanting restaurant, which is usually humming with activity. The atmosphere is so wonderfully charming that it is easy to overlook the food which, while consistently good, could be better given that this is such a Mecca. In particular the menu is very slow to change (it was revamped for the first time in many years during 2006).

One of our favourite choices for dinner in Old Havana, La Paella has a relaxed, intimate and charming ambience fully in keeping with the lovely boutique hotel (Hostal Valencia). The trademark paella dish is not perfect but pretty damn good and the wine selection not bad either.

This is a very popular place worth the wait outside in distinctly insalubrious surroundings (bookings aren't taken). The restaurant has a curious status, being neither fully private nor fully state run. Rather, it is promoted as an Asturian cultural centre and is decorated accordingly,complete with football memorabilia. The wine rack is impressive, although, sadly, not always fully stocked. The tasty food comes in large portions at excellent prices: try the Lobster Termidor (CUC 9. 50). Service is also pretty good—once you actually get seated.

A chic source of first class Italian food, convenient for supper after the opera or ballet, or for those in need of good solid sustenance and ice-cold beer after a long morning's viewing of the Museo de Bellas Artes. The restaurant's interior was designed by Roberto Gottardi of National Art School fame and it’s a cut above most modern Havana eateries, a relief to both eye and taste buds if you’re all-frijoled-out. Further decorative delight is supplied by the pulchritudinous punters propping upthe bar.

This Spanish-Moorish-style hotel has one of Havana's most spectacular roof-top restaurants. If you want to enjoy breathtaking views over the city, show up early for dinner before the sun sets. Prices are on the high side, the atmosphere can be a bit dry and formal, and the quality isn't always the best, but the views make it an unforgettable experience all the same.

Santo Angel is a high quality restaurant on the North West corner of the beautiful Plaza Vieja. The best tables are on the terrace although there is also plenty of room inside. It is expensive but worth it the dishes are imaginative and original (try for example the almond chicken in a sherry sauce).

Whilst Havana's Chinatown doesn't enjoy a fraction of the choices of ingredients that Oriental restaurants in many other capitals enjoy, the chefs in the Barrio Chino's small establishments work wonders with vegetables, rice, duck, pork, chicken, fruit and nuts. Tien Tan's kitchen behind the ground floor restaurant is a fabulous sight-serried rows of young Cuban-Chinese men wield their woks like weapons in a sizzlingly hot kitchen, stir-frying at supersonic speed. The results are delicious al dente variations on traditional themes, with lots of fresh ginger and soy, best accompanied with cold Xing Dao.